A WORK IN PUBLIC SPACE BY THOMAS HIRSCHHORN, PRODUCED BY DIA ART FOUNDATION NEW YORK
LOCATED AT FOREST HOUSES, THE BRONX - NEW YORK CITY, SUMMER 2013
The monument functions like a massive magnet pulling on people from different walks
of life: local residents, foreign visitors, New Yorkers, and what Thomas has often
described as the “exclusive audience” which includes: curators, art critics, art
historians, gallerists, and people working in the so called art world. Although many
visitors remain anonymous in certain occasions their names are revealed and conversations
spiral into concrete actions. Among some of the visitors from last week who can be
grouped in this category were: a woman by the name of Peaches, a fantastic singer,
who improvised a song for Gramsci Radio and promised to return this week for a “Running
Event” on Tuesday; and Mike, a music producer who works with young rappers and would
like to organize a performance during “Open Mic" this month. We also had the opportunity
to welcome Frank Rosengarten and Kate Crehan, both Gramsci scholars and professors
at CUNY (their books are part of the Gramsci Library). However, and equally insightful
are the exchanges that occur with anonymous visitors. For instance, there is a resident
of Forest Houses, a recent immigrant from North Africa, who speaks Arabic and some
French but very little English. He comes to the monument accompanied by four toddlers,
three boys and one girl. The girl, the youngest from the quartet, is his niece and
the leading mediator and translator. After a couple of exchanges the uncle produced
a piece of paper with a list of words from his shirt pocket and asked if we had a
dictionary in the Gramsci Library. The next day a friend brought one to the monument
and for the past three days the young man has been camping at the library with a
notebook and his list of words. At the daily “Philosophical Lecture,” Marcus Steinweg
often repeats Alain Badiou’s affirmation that one needs to “Live with an idea.” For
me, this man’s list of word is a telling example of this instructive maxim.
